Modern airplanes can be equipped with a centralized monitoring system, such as for example an Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitoring (ECAM) system. An ECAM type system can detect and diagnose aircraft situations in which a configuration procedure may be needed during normal situations, and then display lists of actions to be carried out for a configuration procedure. During abnormal situations, the ECAM system can detect and diagnose aircraft system failures and requesting a reconfiguration procedure, and then display lists of actions to be carried out for a reconfiguration procedure.
The management of the aircraft's systems, however, is still carried out by the crew who, although assisted by the alerts and the ECAM procedures, must execute all of the management tasks of all of the systems concerned, with the aid of the normal ECAM lists during normal situations. Similarly, during abnormal situations, the crew members with the assistance of the ECAM procedures must try to detect system failures which may be difficult for the systems to detect, for example high vibrations of an engine, perform diagnosis or supplemental diagnosis of system failures, and manage reconfigurations of systems. In addition, the crew members may be required to make decisions on whether to conduct ECAM procedures to the execution of configuration or reconfiguration actions, and then make verification on the proper execution of the actions.
Hence, although assisted by means for monitoring and presenting information, the crew's workload remains significantly burdensome. Accordingly, there is a need for methods, devices, and computer readable media for centralizing automatic management of configuration and reconfiguration procedures while an aircraft is in operation, under both normal and abnormal situations.